Northern Hawk Owl at Sax-Zim Bog, MN I've been to the Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota (northwest of Duluth) five times to photograph Great Gray Owls and other birds and wildlife. I have hoped every time to photography a Northern Hawk Owl, but have struck out the first four trips, until this past weekend. I've been following the Sax Zim Bog group on Facebook and seen numerous postings of Northern Hawk Owls every week since November. I finally got up there and found a couple near the road. It was -7 F degrees the first day I was there and -12 F the second day, yet, there were dozens of photographers and bird watchers with the same idea as me. I didn't really locate the birds myself. I found a dozen or more cars stopped on one of the roads with lots of big lenses pointed up in the trees. There are no pull-outs on the gravel county roads where these birds tend to hunt for food, so birders and photographers must stop on the road to take photos. The owl will sit on a branch or the top of a tree to get a good view to watch and listen for voles (their main food) under the snow, then launch off of the branch driving their talons in the the snow with amazing precision to grab a vole that was under the snow. But, how long do we have to wait in the sub-zero temperature to see them hunt? It could be minutes or hours, or the bird could just decide to instead fly off in to the woods and take a nap deep in the trees. I was lucky this time to see the owl catch three wild voles and quickly eat them. I did not photography any Great Great Owls on this trip (darn) but I did get a few other birds and mammals - see below.
[Click images to see larger]
[Click images to see larger]
Other birds and animals at the bog.
There are several places where there are bird feeders that attract many birds and other wildlife. Below is a female Pine Grosbeak (a first for me), a Common Redpoll (I didn't see any Hoary Redpolls), a Gray Jay, and a chatty Red Squirrel (marauders of the bird feeders). These are just a few of the many Winter residents of the Sax-Zim Bog, plus one more below these photos.
 A Fisher in the Sax-Zim Bog area | A Fisher! I've never seen a Fisher and I didn't know what I had photographed in the Sax-Zim Bog. I learned that this is a woodland mammal (a member of the weasel family) that is somewhat larger than a big house cat with a long bushy tail and fierce looking claws and teeth. I watched it from the car and took photos out the window for several minutes before it hurried off in to the woods. Very exciting to see. [Edit: It turns out that this photo is a pretty big deal - sightings of Fishers in the Bog area are very rare and photos even rarer.] [Click the image to see larger] |
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